Hardware UX: Creating an Accessible and Inclusive Unboxing Experience

A technology client asked us:

How might we improve the hardware experience for users with disabilities?

A hardware product team came to us for help designing an accessibility study to understand if their unboxing and onboarding process was accessible to users with visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments, and determine where improvements could be made. This included the purchasing process, setting up their new device, and initial use experiences. 

Accessibility research enables us to create products with empathy by ensuring they are usable by all people regardless of age or ability. 

Our client’s primary research objectives included:

• Investigate the experiences of people with disabilities while setting up a new hardware device
• Determine any issues or pain points with accessing or interacting with media and communication tools within the device experience
• Identify the impact of non-accessible features to people with disabilities

We Answered:

We designed a multi-phase research program to better understand the experience of unguided hardware setup and first-time use. In order to get real-time feedback throughout the purchase, set-up, and onboarding process, we recommended a two-part study, starting with a two-week Diary Study, in which participants would submit self-reported diary entries in written, photo, and video formats. Participants were instructed not to open the device or read any materials until the diary started, so we could gain insights as they unboxed their new hardware. 

Once the diary was complete, we conducted follow-up one-on-one interviews to dive deeper into the diary entries. These sessions took an ethnographic approach, prompting the participant to share:

• Why they were interested in the device
• Reflections on physically setting up the product
• What the onboarding experience was like
• The ease of using assistive technologies with the product
• And more… 

Our UX Researcher had also prepared customized follow-up questions and prompts for each participant based on their diary entries. 

For both phases of the project, we spoke with participants with a range of disabilities, including Visual Impairments (Blind and Low Vision), Hearing Impairments (Deaf and Hard of Hearing), Motor impairments impacting the hands or arms, and Cognitive Impairments.

Outcome:

This two-part research study yielded complex, nuanced insights that helped the client better understand where they met the needs of this population and where they fell short. 

Our results helped validate that accessibility is not limited to just the physical interaction with hardware – it happens at every stage of the user’s journey, from the initial purchase, to unboxing, set-up, and finally, ongoing use. Continued research and development is critical to creating a truly accessible experience.

Our findings included:

• Perspectives on where assistive technology integrations could be improved, including screen readers, voice chat, and speech to text.
• An overview of both positive and negative experiences we discovered during the diary study.
• A prioritized list of issues and recommendations to solve them, ranging from observations of user behaviors and low priority fixes to highly critical issues.
• Where users with disabilities relied on workarounds and “hacks” to complete a task and recommendations on how to create a native solution.
• A competitive analysis across industries on accessibility tools and features to help their product stay ahead of the curve.

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Getting hardware UX right is critical if you want your device to be successful. If you're on a hardware product team and aren't sure where to start, check out our Essential Guide to Hardware UX Research.